System and method for providing viewers of a digital image information about identifiable objects and scenes within the image

ABSTRACT

There are provided methods and systems for providing viewers of a digital image with information about identifiable and scenes within the image. In an embodiment, digital images, uploaded to a host website, are customized through the incorporation of some number of selectable informational links and other text based information to provide viewers of the image real-time access to social and advertising related information regarding certain identifiable objects and scenes in the image. The selectable information links are incorporated within and around the digital image in a process referred to herein as image tagging.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to the dissemination ofinformation, and more particularly to a system and method for presentingsupplemental information to viewers of a digital image about variousobjects and scenes included in the image.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

With the expansion of the Internet as a social tool, the number andtypes of sites that facilitate social networking and information sharinghave greatly increased. Among the most popular of these sites includethose that provide the ability to create a unique profile that link to asocial network (MYSPACE™ and FRIENDSTER™), those that provide onlinepicture albums (FLICKR™) and those that allow users to create a “blog”(BLOGSPOT™) that might be accessed by any individual with internetaccess. The exact form and function of these sites vary, however theyall tend to provide some means of establishing an individual page or setof pages, and allow a user to connect their page or pages to those ofother users in some form of a network. One nearly ubiquitous feature ofthese types of sites is that they provide the ability of a user to puton display various photos either embedded within a page or within agallery. It is standard on these pages for advertisements, generally inthe form of a banner or text, to appear in the area around the picture.These advertisements are typically either sold by the individual or thehost site, and are targeted primarily based upon a user's profilecharacteristics, text on the web page or browsing history of the viewer

Certain social networking sites, such as FLICKR™, which is a digitalphoto-sharing website and web-services suite, allow users to “tag” aphotograph or areas of a photograph with a word or words. These phototags provide an easy and convenient way of exploring Flickr's photographdatabase by navigating among related keywords (tags) which people attachto photos for easy navigation to pictures with similar content. Further,these photo-level tags, related to an entire photograph, provide fortargeting of advertising. Filch also provides users with the option towrite comments related to individual areas of a photograph, howeverthese area specific comments do not provide informational links orprovide the basis for advertisement targeting.

In recent years, several web sites that provide for photo-tagging havearisen. For example, a user of FACEBOOK™, a commercially available siteat facebook.com, allows members to identify other members within photos.This is accomplished by pointing to an area of the photo and associatingan area with the name (and profile) of another member of the site, wherethe other member is generally selected from a network of friends. Itfurther allows members to scribe a brief description of the picture toconvey information the uploader deems appropriate. The photo taggingmethodology utilized by the site is meant to provide an informationaltool for viewers to navigate between profiles, rather than a tool forthe site to target advertisements. As the system is not set up foradvertising or information sharing purposes beyond simple socialnetworking, it does not provide a means to identify inanimate objects.As such, a related drawback is that it does not provide for links basedupon those inanimate objects or scenes. Further differences between thisfunctionality and the functionality of the present invention include alack of provision for saving profiles linked to the fundamental pictureproperties. As a consequence, identical photos uploaded by two friendsdo not have equivalent tags.

Another photo-tagging site that has recently arisen is RIYA™, which is acommercially available site at riya.com. The site enables users tosearch the existing reservoir of Internet pictures for objects.Specifically, it provides a search tool which allows users to identifyan area (e.g., object, face) and find similar areas (objects, faces)across the available database of pictures. It further allows users tofine-tune the results based upon picture properties such as color, shapeand texture of the photograph. The site also provides a “Personal searchservice” that allows users to train a search engine to come to recognizefaces common within a user's pictures. It is premised that by honing theability to recognize the faces of common subjects of pictures, thesharing of photographs is facilitated. The search/photo taggingmethodology employed at the Riya site is purposed differently from thepresent invention and thus, when considering Riya tagging functionalityfrom an informational linking and advertising perspective, it suffersfrom a number of drawbacks. Specifically, the methodology employed failsto describe a system of creating relevant and interesting tags thatcontain commentary and links, some of which will be paid for byadvertisers. The Riya system does not provide for the monetization oftags through advertisement and the processes whereby consumers areenabled to help create that information and link those associations.Other limitations include, a lack of pop-up tag as a means of creating a“point to reference” tool or side-bar media space that is chosen atleast in part based upon information provided by the user or linkschosen by the user, restricted use of a tool box when selecting areas ofa photograph, no provision for allowing users to define areas and selectthe linked information, no provision for integrating the sitefunctionality with a “blog” or personal website or commercial websiteand no provision for allowing a third party processor to provideadvertising based on picture content.

What is desired therefore is a system and method that creates newapproaches to social networking, creates new streams of targetedadvertising revenue and improves the targeting logic of existing streamsof advertising revenue by allowing users to provide information relatedto objects and scenes within a digital image.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention addresses these and other problems in the priorart by providing methods and systems for providing viewers of a digitalimage, information about identifiable objects and scenes within theimage via selectable information links. In an embodiment, digitalimages, uploaded to a host website, are customized through theincorporation of some number of selectable informational links and othertext based information to provide viewers of the image real-time accessto social and advertising related information regarding certainidentifiable objects and scenes in the image. Unlike the prior art,which merely provides users with the option to write comments related toindividual areas of a displayed image, such as a photograph, the presentinvention provides a unique method of providing viewers of a digitalimage the ability to dynamically access a host of information resources,in real-time, related to certain identifiable objects and scenes in theimage. Access to the information resources is achieved primarily throughthe selectable information links incorporated within and around thedigital image in a process referred to herein as image tagging.

In an embodiment, certain of the incorporated informational links, whichpertain to certain objects and scenes in a customized digital image, areclassified as socially oriented informational links. The sociallyoriented informational links are intended to serve a social function inthat they are chosen to be optimally relevant and interesting toviewers, primarily on a social level. Certain other informational links,incorporated within and around the periphery of a customized digitalimage, which pertain to certain objects and scenes in a customizeddigital image, are classified as advertising oriented informationallinks. These links comprise a form of targeted advertising directed tothe viewers of the customized digital image.

In the described embodiment, the socially oriented informational linksare displayed to viewers within the image using well-known imagerollover techniques and are not subject to change between viewinginstances at the host website. In contrast, the advertising orientedinformational links may or may not be changed between viewing instancesat the host website. In the case where the advertising links changebetween viewing instances, these links may change over the course ofdays, weeks or other time periods. In the preferred embodiment, theadvertising links are displayed within the image using theafore-mentioned image rollover techniques and also around the peripheryof the image in the form of banner ads.

In the described embodiments, the invention provides techniques forcustomizing a digital image through the creation and association of thesocially oriented and advertising oriented informational links withcertain pre-selected identifiable objects and scenes in the image. Thecustomization process or technique of associating links with objects andscenes of an image is sometimes referred to herein as “tagging.”

According to one aspect of the invention, a method for displayingsupplemental information to viewers of a digital image comprises thesteps of: (a) associating at least one selectable informational linkwith a corresponding identifiable object or scene in the digital imageto produce a customized digital image; (b) displaying the customizeddigital image to a viewer; and (c) said viewer selecting the at leastone selectable informational link; and (d) retrieving information,responsive to said selection, from an address included in said viewerselected information link that identifies a location of content on awide area network, wherein said content pertains to said identifiableobject or scene corresponding to said viewer selected informationallink.

According to another aspect of the invention, different entities, actingjointly or individually, may perform the tagging procedure for linkinginformation resources to various objects and scenes of a digital image.In an embodiment, the owner, who may also be the author of the digitalimage, may perform the tagging procedure. In certain embodiments, thehost site website, hosting the digital images, could perform the taggingprocedure automatically using well known system software processes.These processes are typically based on well-known pattern recognitiontechniques to scan an uploaded digital image to identify one or moreareas of a digital image, or the entire image, that might contain anidentifiable object or scene.

According to yet another aspect of the invention, once a digital imagehas been customized via the tagging procedure, the incorporated tags(i.e., informational links and other information) may be displayed toviewers of the digital image in various ways. One way of displaying theincorporated tags to viewers is by using well known roll-over techniquesto display pop-up windows displaying the tags. Another way of displayingthe tags is by displaying links around the periphery of the digitalimage in the form of banner and text-based advertisements. Another wayof utilizing the incorporated links is to use them as a means forselecting the banner advertisements and/or text-based advertisementspositioned on the page on which the image is displayed. In variousembodiments, these display techniques may be used in any reasonablecombination including being used as a complement to current standardsfor targeting advertisements.

The present invention provides numerous advantages over the prior art. Aprimary advantage is a system and method that creates new streams oftargeted advertising revenue and improves the targeting logic ofexisting streams of advertising revenue by allowing users to provideinformation related to objects within a digital image. Such a systemprovides the impetus for consumers to provide new information aboutareas of an image and allow them the ability to choose links to beassociated with the area, to the end of creating a set of links andinformation which is most relevant and interesting to viewers. A furtherrelated advantage is that such a system allows advertisements to be soldby the host site not only based on profile characteristics, text on aweb page or browsing history of the viewer, but based on the content ofimages that viewer has elected to view. Implemented properly, the systemprovides a tool for users to quickly and easily identify products orlocations, and find out more information or execute some kind ofconsumer transaction based on that information. Once such functionalityhas been established, users might learn to look for such tags withinphotographs in order to find out more information about products orscenes contained within the image. This is seen as particularly valuablein the case that an individual that displays images and creates tags isa popular “blogger” or popular member of a social network, and whereappearance with a certain object, and further identification of suchobject by the individual produces a tacit endorsement that might spurconsumer interest to find out more information and potentially purchasesaid object. An additional advantage is that the tag data provides abasis for selling additional targeted ad space in the same form as theinformational links, and may provide additional information to replaceor complement current methods for the targeting of existingadvertisements.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

These and other objects, features and advantages of the presentinvention will be apparent from a consideration of the followingDetailed Description of the invention, when considered in conjunctionwith the drawing Figures, in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system according to an embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 2 there is shown a tagging process for presenting product and otherinformation about objects and scenes in a digital image, according toone embodiment;

FIG. 3 illustrates a screen shot of an exemplary digital image which hasbeen uploaded by a content provider to a host web site;

FIG. 4 illustrates a screen shot of the exemplary digital image in whichthe content provider identifies and circumscribes areas around objectsand scenes of interest in an uploaded digital image;

FIG. 5 illustrates a screen shot of the exemplary digital image in whichthe content provider is presented with a linking option window below theexemplary uploaded digital image for determining the manner in whichvarious circumscribed images are linked to the product information tags;

FIG. 6 illustrates a screen shot of an uploaded and tagged digital image600, tagged in accordance with the tagging process; and

FIG. 7 illustrates a result of a viewer scrolling a cursor over one ormore of the circumscribed areas in the tagged digital image of FIG. 6.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to methods and systems for displayingsupplemental information via informational links and text-basedinformation to viewers of a digital image. Unlike prior art approachesthat target online advertising which appears on the same page as digitalimages based on user profile characteristics, text displayed on the samepage as the image or potentially browsing history of the viewer, thepresent inventors have devised a novel approach to targeted onlineadvertising and social networking that provides for the association ofinformation related to image content with areas of a photo or the entirephoto and the targeting of advertisements based on the content of thedigital image. Such a system might either be used to be the sole meansof selecting the right advertisement for a particular page or mightsupplement current standards targeting in order to select advertisementsthat are relevant not only for the viewer based on their own profile,but also based on the content of the images they are currently viewing.Further, the system provides for the implementation of a new media spacebeyond standard banner advertisements and text-based advertisements,that would provide image viewers the ability to scroll over objectswithin a photo and receive information and links associated with sucharea or object, effectively training them that they can point to certainobjects to find more information or purchase options.

As used herein examples and illustrations are exemplary and notlimiting.

System Overview

FIG. 1 presents a block diagram of a system according to an embodimentof the present invention. As shown, the system includes a host web site155 including a web application server 125 coupled to a data store 135for storing customized digital content, a plurality of content providers105-115 (three are shown) and a plurality of content viewers 135-145(three are shown). The content providers 105-115 and content viewers135-145 are coupled to the host web site 155 via network 120. Thecontent providers 105-115 upload digital content (e.g., a digital image)to the host web site 155 via network 120. The uploaded digital contentmay comprise, without limitation, digital still photos, frames ofdigital video, scanned images, digitized analog images, and any similartype of digital image. Content providers 105-115 are intended toinclude, without limitation, an individual, a group of individuals, abusiness, or an organization. A processor contained within the webapplication server 125 of the host web site 155 is configured to receiveand customize the digital content uploaded from the content providers105-115.

Customization of a digital image is a two step process. First, thedigital image is tagged by a user. Tagging comprises identifying one ormore socially oriented links, in a manner to be described below, andincorporating the identified links into pop-up windows associated withcertain user selected objects and scenes of the digital image. Thesesocially oriented links may also appear in text form around theperiphery of the digital image. In the second stage of the process,keywords are identified which are offered to sale to advertisers. Thekeywords are used by the advertisers to place advertisements which mayappear in the same pop-up windows referred to above and may also be usedto dictate the form and function of banner ads, which appear around theperiphery of the digital image.

[A] Tagging

A process is now described, with reference to FIGS. 1-3 for tagging adigital image, referred to herein as tagging.

With reference now to FIG. 2, there is shown a tagging process 200 forincorporating socially oriented links for various objects and scenesincluded in an uploaded digital image, according to one embodiment. Thetagging process is preferably executed by the web application server 125of the host web site 155.

At step 202, a given content provider 105, who may be the publisher(author) of the digital image, uploads one or more digital images to ahost web site 155 which supports the uploading and display of digitalcontent, including digital images. By way of example, there is shown inFIG. 3, an exemplary digital image 300 which has been uploaded by acontent provider 105 to a host web site 155. For the sake of clarity,the exemplary digital image is simplified to the extent that it iscomprised of various textual representations (proxies) of objects andscenes which may be found in a conventional digital image.

At step 204, the content provider 105 is given the option of viewing theuploaded digital image on a confirmation page.

At step 206, the content provider 105, determines those entities thatare to be granted authorization to tag the uploaded digital image 300(see FIG. 3). Determining which entities are to be granted authorizationmay be implemented via a system query requesting that the contentprovider 105 identify the authorized entities, or potentially set as adefault option that the user might change via “privacy settings”, whichare well known. The authorized entities may include, for example,anonymous viewers of the digital image at the host web site 155, friendsof the content provider 105, or some combination of each. The contentprovider 105 has the option of electing not to extend authorizationrights to any entity and thereby retain such authorization privilegesexclusively. As a further option, the content provider 105 may grantauthorization rights exclusively to a system administrator of the hostweb site 155.

At determination step 208, the content provider 105, is queried by thesystem to determine whether the content provider 105 wishes to initiatethe tagging process for the currently uploaded digital image 300. Thisstep may be implemented via a system query including a dialogue boxrequiring a “yes/no” response. In the event the content provider 105decides not to initiate the tagging process, by providing a “no”response to the system query, the tagging process is terminated at step208. Otherwise, the tagging process is initiated at step 210.

At step 210, the tagging process terminates and the uploaded digitalimage 300 is incorporated into the database 135 of the host web site 155in a conventional manner without being tagged.

At step 212, initiation of the tagging process begins with the contentprovider 105 identifying specific objects and scenes of interest in theuploaded digital image 300 and circumscribing an area around each objectand/or scene of interest. In the present illustrative example, as shownin FIG. 4, the content provider 105 identifies three objects of interestand circumscribes an area around each object, i.e., areas 1, 2 and 3.The three circumscribed areas 1, 2 and 3 surround a tree 30, a house 32and a plane 34, respectively. It should be appreciated that the act ofcircumscribing an area of interest in the digital image 300 may beperformed in any manner known to those having ordinary skill in the art.For example, in the screen display illustrated in FIG. 4, a marquee tool452, selected from the system palette 450, is used to circumscribe theareas 1, 2 and 3 of the uploaded digital image 300. It should beunderstood that there is no limitation regarding the shape or size of acircumscribed area, as long as the circumscribed area is within theboundaries of the digital image 300.

At step 214, the content provider 105 is provided with the option ofentering descriptive text for each circumscribed area 1, 2 and 3. Asshown in FIG. 4, this step may be implemented in one way via textentries entered into text entry boxes 460, 470 and 480, associated withareas 1, 2 and 3, respectively. In the first text entry box 460 of thescreen display of FIG. 4, a line of text is entered describing the treeimage 32 circumscribed in area 1. The text entry comprises—The tree Iclimbed as a child. In the second text entry box 470, a line of text isentered describing the house 32 circumscribed in area 2. The text entrycomprises—This is my grandmother's house, in Pleasantville. As shown, notext entry is made for area 3 of the digital image 300.

At step 216, for each text entry made by the content provider 105 for agiven circumscribed area, the system parses the entered text to extractnouns and verbs as keys to identifying relevant product information tagsfor the image in the circumscribed area. It is noted that the contentprovider 105 has the option of electing to enter a single descriptiveword as a text entry. In this case, the system uses the singledescriptive word as a key or index for searching a database comprised ofa plurality of keywords to locate relevant links.

In one embodiment, in lieu of using user-defined text, as describedabove, a content provider 105 may directly search a database comprisedof a plurality of common images to identify images which are highlycorrelated to the images circumscribed in the uploaded digital image300. Each image in the database would include an associated set of tags,composed of keywords and social links.

At step 218, with reference now to FIG. 5, the content provider 105 ispresented with a linking option window 502 directly below the uploadeddigital image 300 for determining the manner in which the variouscircumscribed images (e.g., tree 30, plane 32, house 34) and/or scenesdisplayed in the digital image 300 are to be linked to the productinformation tags identified at step 216. In the presently describedembodiment, the user is presented with two linking options, described indetail below.

In the presently described embodiment, the content provider 105 is giventhe option of choosing one of two linking options to link the varioustags identified at step 216 with a corresponding circumscribed area. Asshown in FIG. 5, a linking option may be selected by checking acorresponding check box in the linking option window 502.

As shown in FIG. 5, the linking option window 502 includes threecolumns. A first column, referred to herein as an area identifier column540, for identifying the circumscribed area (e.g., areas 1, 2 and 3) tobe linked to one or more product information tags. A second column,referred to herein as a text description column 550 listing thedescriptive text for each circumscribed area. A third column, referredto herein as a linking column 560, for selecting a linking option foreach circumscribed area. The two linking options provided in linkingcolumn 560 are respectively labeled—Option (1)— “AssociateAutomatically” and Option (2)— “Search/Select and Associate Manually”

Linking Option (1)— “Associate Automatically”

The first linking option, Associate Automatically, shifts theresponsibility for associating a tagged area with relevant, interestinglinks from the user of the system to the system or site host. Inaccordance with this linking option, the user implicitly gives thesystem permission to utilize all available information to populateuser-created photo tags of a given circumscribed area with relevantlinks. One way in which the system may utilize all available informationto populate photo tags with relevant links is to use the text data (seetext description column 550) describing each circumscribed area. Thedescriptive text may, when parsed into keywords, in certain cases, besufficient to identify relevant links. In some cases, the descriptivetext may represent a starting point for identifying relevant links. Inthe case where the user has not provided any text, or in the case wherethe descriptive text is insufficient, but is a good starting point, thesystem may scan the digital image 300 in its entirety using imagerecognition technology to identify matches with an existing informationdatabase of images and associated keywords. Object and scenes that canbe matched to existing database records are associated with the samekeywords as the original record, providing the basis to determine themost appropriate and most resonant links. Alternately, the system mightrely on paid individuals trained in categorizing tags, identifyingobjects, describing scenes, choosing keywords and choosing links to beassociated with the tag.

In one embodiment, the user implicitly gives the system permission toutilize all available information to scan the entire photograph andcreate new tags within the picture, without the user havingcircumscribed an area. One way in which the system may utilize allavailable information to create new tags is to use scan the digitalimage 300 in its entirety using image recognition technology to identifymatches with an existing information database of images. Those objectsand scenes that can be identified and matched with photographs of knowncontent are tagged by the system, where objects and scenes in thepicture are selected by the system (circumscribed), and keywordsassociated with those matched objects on record are associated with thenew tag. After creating a new tag, the system would select relevantsocial links per the above-described process.

In one embodiment, identifying relevant links may include giving primaryweight or consideration to those objects and associated keywords thatare shown to be within the circumscribed area and giving secondaryweight or consideration to certain objects and associated keywordsoutside of the circumscribed region. By giving some weight to imagesoutside of the circumscribed area, individual objects, ages of people,groups of people, and the like may prove helpful in determining the mostappropriate and most resonant links.

In another embodiment, the circumscribed area may be consideredexclusively without giving any consideration or weight to regions(images) outside of the circumscribed area of the digital image todetermine the most appropriate and most resonant links.

Linking Option (2)— “Search/Select and Associate Manually”

In the case where the user wishes to assert more control over theprocess of link selection, a second linking option is provided, referredto herein as, Search/Select and Associate Manually 560. In accordancewith this second linking option, a user is provided with a search bartool (not shown) to facilitate the entry of a search term related to anobject or scene in a given circumscribed area. For example, this secondlinking option is selected by the content provider 105 for circumscribedarea 32 in the present illustrative example by checking theSearch/Select and Associate Manually checkbox for Area 2 in FIG. 5.

In accordance with this second linking option, a user-entered searchterm or terms is used to search for relevant links in a similar mannerto how a GOOGLE™ search is performed. In response to the user enteringhis or her search term, a search query is performed in which the userreceives a list of links related to the entered search term. The usermay select one or more links, or no links, from among the returned listas relevant links for association with the given circumscribed area. Inan alternate embodiment, instead of using a search bar with results, theuser may navigate through a directory, browsing through variouscategories, to find relevant links. Results of either such search,either by search term or through a directory, might be provided withincategories, for example those links that provide historical information,reference information, media citations, and geographic information.

It should be noted that in the case where a user does not explicitlychoose Linking Option (2)— “Search/Select and Associate Manually” thesystem may utilize Linking Option (1)— “Associate Automatically” bydefault. However, it should be appreciated that for the sake of maximumrelevance to the end viewer, the selection of information links by theuser through Linking Option (2) results in more personalized and thusinteresting links for the end viewer. Thus, the user may be encouragedto select links via Linking Option (2). However, if the user isreluctant to do so, then as a backup, the system may utilize the processarticulated in Linking Option (1) by default.

[B] Incorporating Advertising Links in a Tagged Digital Image

The process described above with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 2was directed to the first step of customization, i.e., tagging. Thefollowing description pertains to the second step of customizationdirected to the addition of one or more advertising links in the form ofpop-up windows and banner ads. This second step of customizationutilizes the socially oriented links identified in the firstcustomization step, in a manner to be described below.

Recall from the tagging process described above, with particularreference to step 216, for each text entry made by the content provider105 for a given circumscribed area, the system parsed the text entry toextract nouns and verbs as keys for identifying relevant productinformation tags for a given image in the circumscribed area. For thepurpose of identifying relevant advertising links, these extractedkeywords are heretofore referred to as primary keywords. The set ofprimary keywords, derived during the tagging procedure, are used asinput to a type of computer software, well known in the art as a“Spider” or “Crawler”, to identify a set of secondary keywords. As iswell known, search engines include, at least one spider or crawlerapplication which crawls across the Internet gathering contentinformation, and populating a database with this information, which isorganized in the form of an index or catalogue. In accordance with thepresently described process for incorporating one or more advertisinglinks in and around a digital image, the “Spider” or “Crawler” softwareis programmed to scan a set of resources, such as, for example, thecontent of pages selected as the socially-oriented links, which wereidentified by the tagging procedure. The socially-oriented linkscomprise a set of addresses that identify the location of content on awide area network, such as the Internet. More particularly, the “spider”or “crawler” software application is configured to extract a set ofcommon keywords from the socially linked pages, using the primarykeywords as drivers of this process, where the spiders look principallyfor major themes conveyed on socially linked pages beyond those primarykeywords contained within some number of characters of those primarykeywords. Those keywords that appear most often would be considered asecondary set of keywords. The set of primary and secondary keywords aremade available for sale to advertisers, as described in greater detailbelow.

In another embodiment, the system employs regression analysis techniquesto determine general themes contained on a webpage (e.g., the sociallyoriented links) to provide a set of secondary keywords that correlatemost highly with such themes.

Identifying a set of secondary keywords is now described by way ofexample as follows. Assume that a particular digital image includes animage of a blue house on a hillside overlooking a brook. Typical taggedimages may include—the house and the brook. A content provider mayprovide descriptive text describing the tagged house as— “a blue tudorhome with a wrap-around porch.” A set of primary keywords which may beextracted from this description might include {blue, tudor, home,porch}. The image tags might also provide social links that the userselects, which provide additional information about the image, forexample such a page might identify the house's geographic location on amap, provide a page related to the municipality in which the house islocated or a page containing an article related to the architecturalstyle of the house. As described above, a spider would review thecontent and extract keyword information from the pages comprising thesocial links, looking primarily for words that appear within some numberof characters of primary keywords. An analysis of these words isperformed based on repetition, or other well known techniques in theinformation arts, to find the mostly highly correlated words, whichwould be counted as a secondary list of keywords.

While spidering and regression analysis have been described, numerousother methods will be known to the readers for developing taxonomies ofrelated keywords.

Keywords, both primary and secondary, would be made available for saleto advertisers, who upon purchasing one or more words, include theirlinks, either as text within the pop-up box, text on the page or as abanner advertisement. In an embodiment, the keywords may be sold toadvertisers in an auction type format. Alternatively, the sale may beconducted on a first come, first serve basis. Of course, otherwell-known methods of selling advertisements are within contemplation ofthe invention.

In an embodiment, it is contemplated to establish a mechanism formarketing the advertising related links (tags) for sale to advertiserswho may be interested in purchasing the tags to create new streams oftargeted advertising revenue and improve the targeting logic of existingstreams of advertising revenue. In this manner, an advertiser would owna portion of the display space associated with a purchased tag. Tofacilitate a marketplace directed to the sale of advertising tags, athird party database may be utilized, including system softwareconfigured to provide a report of the number of instance a keyword orhighly correlated keyword appears, traffic (number of viewers) ofpictures that contain such tags and associated keywords and potentiallyhistorical conversion (click-through) on ads that are positioned relatedto these keywords. In this way, the system might quote advertisers thepotential size of the traffic in a manner that would allow them tochoose the number of keywords they would like to purchase and amount ofmoney to allocate to purchasing such keywords.

It should be appreciated that the identified links may be identified byany number of well known link identification mechanisms, known in theart, such as, for example, a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), a UniformResource Identifier, an Internet Protocol (IP) address, a file transferprotocol (“FTP”) address.

In one embodiment, identifying relevant links may include giving primaryweight or consideration to those objects and associated keywords thatare shown to be within the circumscribed area and giving secondaryweight or consideration to certain objects and associated keywordsoutside of the circumscribed region. By giving some weight to imagesoutside of the circumscribed area, individual objects, ages of people,groups of people, and the like may prove helpful in determining the mostappropriate and most resonant links.

Displaying the Customized Digital Image

What has been described thus far is a tagging process in which socialand advertising links and other information is associated with a digitalimage to produce a customized image for display to viewers at a hostwebsite, such as host website 155.

FIGS. 6 and 7, illustrate, an exemplary customized digital image, madeavailable for viewing at a host website.

With reference now to FIG. 6, in accordance with the presentillustrative example, there is shown a screen shot of an uploaded andtagged digital image 600, tagged in accordance with the tagging process,described above. The exemplary screen shot 600 is divided into threegeneral areas. The first area includes the tagged digital image 600comprised of the three circumscribed areas 1, 2 and 3, selected inaccordance with step 210. It should be understood that the boundaries ofthe circumscribed areas 1, 2 and 3, are transparent to the viewer andare shown here for the sake of clarity. Directly below the taggeddigital image 600, there is a second area including the descriptive textselected in accordance with step 212.

To the right of the screen shot 600 there is shown a third general areaof the screen display including banner and text ads. In particular,there is shown a banner ad 650 which is one form of link related to oneor more of the circumscribed areas 30, 32 and 34. Directly below thebanner ad 650, there is shown a text ad 660 which is another form oflink related to one or more of the circumscribed areas 30, 32 and 34.

With reference now to FIG. 7, there is shown a result of a viewerscrolling a cursor over two of the circumscribed areas 1, 2 in thetagged digital image 600. In general, when a viewer scrolls a cursorover a circumscribed area, a pop-up window (i.e., floating box) appearson the display including certain links. For example, when a viewerscrolls over circumscribed area 1 in the screen display of FIG. 7,pop-up window 725 appears on the screen display, including three (3)social links which were identified during the tagging process inaccordance with the first linking option, i.e., Associate Automatically,described above. In addition to these three (3) social links, two (2)additional advertising links are shown.

Continuing with FIG. 7, when an end user scrolls over anothercircumscribed area 2, pop-up window 735 appears on the screen displayincluding two social (2) links. These two (2) links were identifiedduring the tagging process in accordance with the second linking option,Search/Select and Associate Automatically, described above. As above,one (1) additional advertising link is displayed here as well.

In different embodiments of the invention, the banner and text ads maychange in content or type as different links are activated or evenbetween sequential activations of the same link.

It is noted that viewers of the uploaded digital images (e.g., photos),who may be members of the hosting web site 155, may perform theoperative steps for selecting links to be associated with circumscribedareas. This is in contrast to the previously described embodiment inwhich the content providers (authors) of the digital images perform theoperative steps for selecting links to be associated with thecircumscribed areas.

Viewers may provide tags in a number of different ways, including, forexample, providing tags in a “wiki” manner. As is well known to those inthe art, a wiki is a web site comprised of the perpetual collective workof many authors. It is similar to a blog in structure and logic,however, a wiki, extends the blog model by allowing anyone to edit,delete or modify content that has been placed on the Web site using abrowser interface, including the work of previous authors. The term wikitypically refers to either the Web site or the software used to createthe site. In such a model, the viewer might be given the ability tocircumscribe areas of a photo and write associated short descriptions.Further, the viewer might choose the appropriate links to be associatedwith such text or the system might use viewer-created text as a basisfor selecting the appropriate links, toward the end of providing themost informative, interesting and relevant links possible.

Storing the Customized Digital Image

Subsequent to circumscribing an area of an image and selecting theappropriate links to be associated with the circumscribed areas in themanner described above, the system links or associates the tags to thedigital image and stores the information in a data repository. Theprocess of linking or associating the identified tags with a digitalimage may be performed in a number of different ways includingcoordinate linking and pixel pattern linking, each of which aredescribed as follows.

Coordinate Linking

In one embodiment, the photo tags may be linked with an uploaded digitalimage using coordinate data. In particular, the coordinate data may beused for describing ranges within the image. For example, the five (5)product information tags of pop-up window 725 of FIG. 7 may be linked tothe digital image 300 using an x-y coordinate range (e.g., x−2.5 mm to 4mm, y−6 mm to 6.5 mm). The coordinate range data can scale up and downin proportion to the size of the display. It is noted that thecoordinate data describes numerical ranges without considering theactual image content. In other words, the particular pixel patterns areirrelevant to the coordinate linking method.

In operation, when a record is created for a given digital image, therecord preferably includes coordinate data for each circumscribed areawithin the image. Whenever a viewer scrolls his or her mouse across thedigital image, a software process determines whether the current pointerposition is within the boundaries of a circumscribed area, as defined bythe associated coordinate data. If so, the photo tags linked to thecoordinate data are retrieved from memory to be displayed inside of apop-up window.

Pixel Pattern Linking

In another embodiment, information related to the customization ofphotos is directly linked to the pixel patterns of the digital image. Inthis embodiment, when a record is created for a given digital image, asample of the pixel area corresponding to each circumscribed region isstored as part of the record. Whenever a viewer scrolls his or her mouseacross the digital image, a software process performs a database searchto find a corresponding pre-stored pixel pattern. The correspondence maybe computed to within a pre-determined confidence level (e.g., 100%,90%, etc.). In the event that a match is found to be within a prescribedtolerance level, associated tags, which are pre-stored as part of theidentified database record are linked with the image. The benefit ofthis functionality is that data provided by a user such a descriptivetext and selected links endures for all copies of identical or nearlyidentical photographs, and is not limited solely to the tagged instanceof the photo.

Compensation Based on Tagging Behavior

In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, the person(e.g., content provider, viewer) that tags a digital image 300 can bepart of a distribution structure and receive compensation or otherincentives from a host web site 155 for tagging the digital image 300.It is contemplated that the tagging process will generate an increase inthe number of clicks advertisements surrounding a picture as a result ofthe improved targeting, and will create entirely new clicks on linkswithin the pop-up boxes related to objects within a photo tag. For theseincremental clicks, the host web site might generate incrementalrevenue. For example, for a tagged digital image, the host web site maygenerate twenty dollars per month, which may be ten dollars above whatthe same image might have produced (in terms of revenue) without thetagging information. Given the expected increase in advertising revenue,the host site might provide users incentive or reward to provide tagginginformation in the form of a share of incremental revenue associatedwith that tag. Such rewards or compensation encourages other users andviewers to tag their digital image in a similar manner, improving thequality of content available to all visitors of the host web site. In anembodiment, the tagged photo may be licensed for use by other users suchas other web sites.

In an alternate embodiment, a user that provides the digital image andcreates the tags might also own the advertising space associated withthe image (as might be the case if the user has developed their owndomain with a personal “blog”). While in previously describedembodiments, the user provides a digital image and a host website sellsadvertisements based upon the content of the digital image, under thisembodiment they might use the invention together with a text basedadvertising system, such as GOOGLE™, AdSense, for example, that placesbanner advertisements based upon page content, in order to further theselection of such text based advertisements.

In one embodiment, the targeted advertising links may be identified andselected during the tagging process based upon one or more observedbehaviors of a particular viewer. In the prior art, the selection ofbanner and text ads are typically based upon an established viewerpreference, as indicated by viewer profile information and/or browserhistory. In this embodiment, the idea of generating targeted advertisinglinks based on viewer preference is extended by observing whichadvertisements a particular viewer expresses an interest in, byobserving which tags a particular viewer views and then clicks through.Advertisements are then chosen in future images which comport with theparticular viewer's tag-usage history, in the same way a browser historyor information in a personal profile information is utilized. Forexample, a digital image may include an image of an automobile and aboat. It is observed that a particular viewer expresses a preference forselecting links associated with the automobile. Thus, based on theobserved behavior of that particular viewer, a future digital image maybe customized to emphasize targeted advertising links directed toautomobiles as opposed to boats, where customization primarily meansselecting the optimal advertising links from a set of possibleadvertising links.

In an embodiment, compensation can be provided in accordance with astandard formula to compensate a user or viewer tagging content perincremental click. That is, a base line of standard click rate is firstestablished, and may be periodically re-established thereafter, tovalidate the incremental clicks created by the tagging process. Once thebase rate is established, a compensation system may readily determinewhat constitutes an incremental click and compensate the user or vieweron this basis.

In another embodiment, a host web site may agree to pay some percentageof their revenue for each incremental click. This rate may adjust alonga sliding scale dependent upon a number of variables including, forexample, traffic across all of the posted digital images, the content ofthe digital images, the type of advertisement and conversion of theviewers.

In yet another embodiment, it is contemplated that in certain cases theindividual that tags the digital image is different from the contentprovider of the digital image. In accordance with the presentembodiment, it is contemplated to compensate the individual(s) who tagthe digital images, who are not the owners of the digital image. Forexample, if an individual visits a friend's web site and providesinformation about one or more objects in the digital image. Ifinformation provided on that photograph results in the association ofproduct information tags that generate some kind of revenue, then someform of compensation is due to the individual

In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, thecompensation system uses payment units, which can be in the form ofactual points deposited into an account. However, one skilled in the artwill recognize that the implementation details will be similar if moneyor alternative forms of currency were used instead of points. A user mayreceive 1 point and a tagger may receive 1 point for each click orimpression. Points can then be transacted for goods and services.

While the invention has been shown and described with respect toparticular embodiments, it is not thus limited. Numerous modifications,changes and enhancements will now be apparent to the reader.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer based method for providing viewers of a digital image with information about certain objects and scenes displayed within identifiable areas of the digital image, wherein the identifiable areas comprise less than the entire digital image, the method comprising: (a) associating pre-stored product information hyperlinks with corresponding identifiable areas in the digital image to produce a customized digital image, by identifying and linking the product information links with the corresponding identifiable areas, comprising: i. identifying specific objects and scenes of interest in the digital image; ii. circumscribing an area around each identified object and scene of interest; iii. receiving descriptive text from a user describing said identified specific objects and scenes of interest in at least one of said circumscribed areas; iv. extracting one or more keywords from the descriptive text received from the user; v. searching an existing data-store comprised of a plurality of records, each record comprising one or more keywords and at least one associated product information hyperlink to identify relevant product information hyperlinks from the existing data-store based on a keyword match between the one or more extracted keywords and the keywords in the existing data-store; vi. linking the identified product information hyperlinks with said corresponding identifiable areas in the digital image, to thereby form an association; (b) displaying the customized digital image to a viewer, the customized digital image including the identified product information links associated with said corresponding identifiable areas of the digital image; (c) receiving, from the user, a selection of a given associated product information hyperlink in said digital image, selected in association with a given corresponding area in the digital image; (d) retrieving information, from an address included in said selected product information hyperlink that identifies a location of content on an electronic network; and (e) displaying said retrieved information to the viewer.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the address is one of: (a) a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), (b) a Uniform Resource Identifier, (c) an Internet Protocol (IP) address, (d) a file transfer protocol (“FTP”) address.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of: receiving a scroll over of a given identifiable area in the digital image prior to said receiving step (c); and displaying product information hyperlinks associated with said given identifiable area.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the product information hyperlinks are displayed as part of: (a) a pop-up window, (b) a banner ad.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein certain of the associated product information hyperlinks change between viewing instances.
 6. The method according to claim 1, wherein said descriptive text is selected from the group comprising one of: (a) a text string, (b) one or more keywords.
 7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: compensating a provider of said at least one informational link.
 8. The method of claim 7, further wherein said provider is not an owner of the digital image.
 9. The method of claim 7, wherein said provider of said at least one informational link is an owner of said digital image.
 10. The method of claim 7, wherein said compensation comprises a percentage of revenue derived from incremental clicks of said at least one informational link over and above a pre-defined baseline number of clicks.
 11. The method of claim 7, wherein said compensation comprises a certain number of points per click impression.
 12. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer executable instructions for performing the method of claim
 1. 13. The method of claim 1, wherein the searching step further comprises: matching one or more of the primary key terms with at least one secondary common keyword from among a plurality of secondary common keywords stored in the data-store, selecting an associated informational link stored in association with said secondary common keywords in said data-store.
 14. The method of claim 1, further comprising establishing, prior to said associating step (a), wherein establishing the data-store comprises: repeatedly scanning web content over a period of time using different primary keywords as drivers in each scan to extract a set of common keywords that convey major themes from the different primary keywords utilized in each scan; storing the extracted common keywords in the data-store as secondary common keywords; associating informational links with each of the stored secondary common keywords.
 15. A system for providing viewers of a digital image with information about certain objects and scenes displayed within identifiable areas of the digital image, wherein the identifiable areas comprise less than the entire digital image, the system comprising: a processor; a memory connected to the processor and storing instructions for operating the processor to perform the steps of: (a) associating pre-stored product information hyperlinks with corresponding identifiable areas in the digital image to produce a customized digital image, by identifying and linking the product information hyperlinks with the corresponding identifiable areas, comprising: identifying specific objects and scenes of interest in the digital image; circumscribing an area around each identified object and scene of interest; receiving descriptive text from a user describing said identified specific objects and scenes of interest in at least one of said circumscribed areas; extracting one or more keywords from the descriptive text received from the user; searching an existing data-store comprised of a plurality of records, each record comprising one or more keywords and at least one associated product information hyperlink to identify relevant product information hyperlinks from the existing data-store based on a keyword match between the one or more extracted keywords and the keywords in the existing data-store; linking the identified product information hyperlinks with said corresponding identifiable areas in the digital image, to thereby form an association; (b) displaying the customized digital image to a viewer, the customized digital image including the identified product information hyperlinks associated with said corresponding identifiable areas; (c) receiving, from the user, a selection of a given associated product information hyperlink in said digital image, selected in association with a given corresponding area in the digital image; (d) retrieving information, from an address included in said selected associated product information hyperlink that identifies a location of content on an electronic network; and (e) displaying said retrieved information to the viewer.
 16. The system of claim 15, further comprising: receiving a scroll over of a given identifiable area in the digital image prior to said receiving step (c); and displaying product information hyperlinks associated with said given identifiable area.
 17. The system of claim 15, wherein the address is one of: (a) a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), (b) a Uniform Resource Identifier, (c) an Internet Protocol (IP) address, (d) a file transfer protocol (“FTP”) address.
 18. The system of claim 15, wherein the product information hyperlinks are displayed by the processor as part of: (a) a pop-up window, (b) a banner ad.
 19. The system of claim 15, wherein certain of the associated the product information hyperlinks change between viewing instances.
 20. The system according to claim 15, wherein the step of the processor identifying the at least one selectable product information hyperlinks to be associated with the at least one identifiable object, further comprises the steps of: providing text describing said circumscribed areas in the digital image; parsing said descriptive text to extract key terms there-from; and searching for content on the electronic network utilizing the extracted key terms as an index.
 21. The system according to claim 20, wherein the user descriptive text is selected from the group comprising one of: (a) a text string, (b) one or more keywords.
 22. The system according to claim 15, wherein the step of the processor identifying the at least one selectable informational link to be associated with the at least one identifiable object, further comprises the steps of: searching a data repository to identify images corresponding to said at least one circumscribed identifiable object; and retrieving said at least one selectable informational link associated with said identified images in said data repository.
 23. A computer based method for providing viewers of a digital image with information about certain objects and scenes displayed within identifiable areas of the digital image, wherein the identifiable areas comprise less than the entire digital image, the method comprising: a processor; a memory connected to the processor and storing instructions for operating the processor to perform the steps of: associating product information links with corresponding identifiable areas in the digital image to produce a customized digital image, by identifying and linking the product information links with the corresponding identifiable areas, comprising: i. identifying specific objects and scenes of interest in the digital image; ii. circumscribing an area around each identified object and scene of interest; iii. receiving descriptive text from a user describing said identified specific objects and scenes of interest in at least one of said circumscribed areas; iv. extracting one or more keywords from the descriptive text received from the user; v. searching an existing data-store comprised of a plurality of common images stored in association with a corresponding plurality of product information links, to identify relevant product information links to be associated with said identifiable areas in the digital image based on image matching; vi. linking the identified relevant product information links with said corresponding identifiable areas in the digital image, wherein linking comprises: a) creating a record for said digital image, said record including at least associated coordinate data for each identifiable area within the digital image, b) determining when a user scrolls across the digital image, whether a current pointer position is within the boundaries of a circumscribed area of the digital image defined by the associated coordinate data, c) retrieving from memory one of the identified product information links associated with the identifiable area; displaying the customized digital image to a viewer, the customized digital image including the identified relevant product information links associated with said corresponding identifiable areas; receiving the viewer selection of a given associated product information link in said digital image, selected in association with a given corresponding area in the digital image; retrieving information, from an address included in said selected product information link that identifies a location of content on an electronic network; and displaying said retrieved information to the viewer.
 24. A system for creating an electronic storage record linking one or more identifiable objects or scenes in a digital image with at least one corresponding informational link that pertains to an address that identifies a location of content on a wide area network, the system comprising: a processor; a memory connected to the processor and storing instructions for operating the processor to perform the steps of: identifying specific objects and scenes of interest in the digital image; circumscribing an area around each identified object and scene of interest; sampling a region of the digital image corresponding to each circumscribed area including a given identifiable object or scene in the digital image, wherein said circumscribed area comprises less than the entire digital image; storing each sampled region of the digital image as part of a record linking each sampled region with at least one product information hyperlink; receiving descriptive text from a user describing said identifiable areas in the digital image; extracting one or more keywords from the descriptive text received from the user; searching an existing data-store comprised of keywords and associated product information hyperlinks to identify relevant product information hyperlinks from the existing data-store based on a keyword match between the one or more extracted keywords and the keywords in the existing data-store; including the identified product information hyperlinks as part of the record, to thereby form an association with the previously stored sampled regions displaying the digital image to a viewer, the digital image including the identified product information hyperlinks associated with said sampled regions; receiving, from the user, a selection of a given associated product information hyperlink in said digital image, selected in association with a given sampled region in the digital image; retrieving information, from an address included in said selected associated product information hyperlink that identifies a location of content on an electronic network; and displaying said retrieved information to the viewer.
 25. The system according to claim 24, wherein the sampled region is scalable in accordance with a size of the display of said digital image.
 26. The system of claim 24, wherein the processor further performs the step of compensating a provider of said at least one selectable informational link.
 27. The system of claim 26, wherein said provider is not an owner of said digital image.
 28. The system of claim 26, wherein said provider of said at least one informational link is an owner of said digital image.
 29. The system of claim 26, wherein said compensation comprises a percentage of revenue derived from incremental clicks of said digital image over and above a pre-defined baseline number of clicks.
 30. The system of claim 26, wherein said compensation comprises a certain number of points per click impression. 